Raising Arizona

In the interest of time, let's skip a few years in Cage's career to the first film that really put him on the map: The Coen Brothers' 1988 film, Raising Arizona:


In Raising Arizona, Cage plays H.I. McDonnaugh, a petty crook married to an ex-cop named Ed (Holly Hunter) who longs for a child of their own. Since the couple is unable to concieve, Ed hatches a brilliant plan to steal a child from the wife of Nathan Arizona, a local furniture dealer whose wife has just given birth to quintuplets. Around the same time, Hi's old friends sneak out of prison and expect him to join them in some robberies, so Hi is forced to turn them down, for the reason that he is now a family man.

What I like the most about Raising Arizona is that it tells a simple story about being a man and growing up, it just also does it in the most insane way possible. It's about a man learning to accept the responsibilities of being a parent, and knowing that he can't go out and have fun with his friends anymore. The feelings expressed by Hi to his boss are common in new fathers, but in this case his baby is stolen, and his friends want to rob banks.

Leonard Smalls, the Lone Biker Of The Apocalypse hired to hunt down Hi and retrieve the baby represented Hi's immaturity and selfishness, basically his shortcomings that he must eventually defeat. He only defeats them accidentally, however, after realizing that they are a part of him. This is evidenced by the part where Hi discovers he and Leonard Smalls have the same tattoo, they are part of the same person. It's at that point that Hi realizes what he can and can't handle, and it's then and only then that he is ready to be the father he sees in his dreams.

In many ways, Hi's situation is quite like my own at the moment. There's an inbetween stage of growing up, right before one really becomes a man, and it's one Hi has delayed his stay in for many years. On the other hand, I think I passed through that stage entirely. For as long as I can remember, I've had to take care of someone. My mother was basically useless and bipolar to the point of psychosis through my teen years, and my father and I didn't get along for one stupid reason or another. For my teen years, I was always in charge, and I've gotten used to being a grown-up. Now? I'm at the end of a relationship because, quite frankly, I'm bored with being an adult. Like Hi, I don't want my responsibilities and commitments. I realize what an immature child this makes me sound like. I haven't faced my Leonard Smalls yet, I don't know my own limitations, because I've never gotten the chance to. I'm at the point Hi is in the movie, in his mid-30s, and I shouldn't be. I shouldn't be having a midlife crisis at 22. And yet here I am. Drinking away the pain with Nicolas Cage and the yodeling chase scenes.